It’s fire. On Black Awareness Day, the President of the Republic formalizes the appointment of Jorge Mesías, a loyal ally in the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, to the Federal Supreme Court. The action, which has been planned since Luis Roberto Barroso announced his early departure at the beginning of October, could have taken place before or after November 20. But Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva chose the holiday he approved himself in 2023, as if to indicate that he is immune to the desire to represent blacks and women, the electoral base that has always supported him. At Planalto, loyalty is a one-way street. The president chose to be criticized for his impudence, rather than because he signed, also the day before yesterday, 28 decrees making quilombola lands in 14 states, from Piauí to Rio Grande do Sul, of social importance. The path to the title of 31 communities of 5,200 African-American families ended up being blocked by Christ.
- Central Bank: Documents indicate that the master sold the same operation to BRB twice
Not long ago, I participated in a two-day conference on democracy and violence in Mexico, at the invitation of the American Latino Conversation, of which Isp-Oerg in Brazil is a member. In discussion circles, militarization and territorial control by international drug trafficking factions and gangs have been common problems pointed out by academics, authorities and communicators from countries such as Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras and Argentina, as well as Brazil and Mexico. In elections, there is a convergence in the growth of the abstention rate. A researcher from Haiti, a country suffering from institutional chaos, noted that voter turnout rose from 70%, half a century ago, to 21% in the last elections, in 2016.
- US tariff: Alkmin says 22% of Brazilian products still have a 50%
One year before the presidential election, exit polls give us indications of past disillusionment among national voters. In front of the museum of novelties representing candidate cards, one in five Brazilians say they will vote invalid, blank or absentee. In the latest Quest consultations, the percentage ranges from 12%, when Lula and Jair Bolsonaro appear among the options, to 24%, when the current president and governor of São Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, is presented. In the official statistics of the Turkish Stock Exchange, the total number of absenteeism and uncounted votes was close to 30% of the total number of voters, in the years 2022 and 2024. Fifty years ago, Chico Buarque said: “Any negligence, don’t do it. It could be the last straw.”
Political power in Brazil is so homogeneous that it resembles a eucalyptus forest. In this year’s polls, the only woman to appear among the candidates was former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, although at least three names on the ballot in 2018 and 2022 – Marina Silva, Simone Tippett and Soraya Thronecki – remain active in public life. Subverting diversity in a country where women and blacks make up more than half the population is also a blow to democracy.
Black Consciousness Week, designed as a time to celebrate achievements and demand rights, was punctuated by demonstrations that racism and exclusion are far from buried in Brazil. In São Paulo, a military police officer went with his armed colleagues to the Antonio Pinto Municipal School to coerce the principal. He did not like the educational activity that involved drawing orixa in his 4-year-old daughter’s class. In Rio, the family of a 5-year-old student reported religious racism to the municipal education department. The child of African origin presented the teacher with a yellow flower associated with oxum. In return, he heard from the (supposed) educator a rebuke of demons and devils. To avoid suspicion, the teacher repeated the insult to the child’s grandmother and mother, who had gone to the teaching unit to report the intolerance.
Political contempt and religious fundamentalism are imposed on Brazilian society, 330 years after the murder of Zumbi dos Palmares, the last leader of the quilombo who became a symbol of resistance to slavery and the black freedom struggle; 137 years after the signing of the Golden Law; It has been nearly four decades since the Magna Carta was passed in 1988, which made racism a non-bailable offence, secularism a principle, and equality a guiding principle.
Black people, women, indigenous people, and the men in power just want votes. The struggle for rights is criminalized; Charge for representation, disqualified; The questions are silent. Fight for justice, despised. To this day, they still use whips and leashes—real and imaginary—that they can’t give up. But there is resistance, as we saw in Belém, at the diverse and massive global climate march, at the Republic Declaration holiday, during the COP30. She will be seen in Brasilia, next Tuesday, at the Black Women’s March for Reparation and Good Lives, a decade after the first edition, in 2015.
About The Author
